Leaving Home
by DeimosFire99
Summary: Jack Frost leaves Jamie to deal with a threat greater than Pitch. Will he be able to return and heal a broken spirit? Jack's POV of "Please Come Back"; Genres include: Hurt/Comfort; Romance; Adventure; Supernatural (just a little bit ;)
1. Goodbye

**Hi guys! I focused on this one first. It's PLEASE COME BACK only for Jack's POV. This was written on prompt by a guest named Yuki. THIS IS FOR YOU! :D**

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**Chapter 1: Goodbye**

I didn't want to leave Jamie. Really, I loved the kid, more than I should.

It was Thursday when all our concerns came to a head; the Lights of the Believers were dimming… and for some, they even turned dark. How does that happen? And how does that impact the community where the Light is located in? I shudder at the thought.

North instructed us to be ready for a confrontation. The darkness seemed to be centered on the South Pole. I repressed the urge to laugh at the irony of the situation. It wasn't that hard, really. The tension at the Globe Room was so thick you could cut it with a knife.

After dismissing the assembly, I immediately summoned the Wind to take me to the lake where I died. As I landed on the slightly damp ground coated with fallen leaves, I remembered asking Santa if I could keep the lake frozen year-round. He replied vehemently that, no, I couldn't, because (a.)It would attract suspicion and (b.) I would "upset the balance of Nature".

So following the worn path to the lake, leaving trails of frost in my wake that slowly melted into the ground, I somersaulted straight to the middle of the lake. The wind helped sustain me long enough to do an upside-down pirouette in mid-air and land in an Indian-seat style position in the middle of the still water. I hovered above the surface of the lake with the help of the Wind, exactly two inches from the surface of the water. My staff lay on my lap, the crook gently brushing the surface, causing gentle ripples to distort the surface.

I closed my eyes and mediated. Yes, I meditated. I've been doing this for a while since the disturbance of the Believer's Lights began. I find that sitting in the middle of the lake, may it be frozen or not, thinking of everything and nothing at the same time helps me get my priorities straight. But why in the middle of the lake where I died? Why not somewhere else where no bad memories have the potential to surface?

I find the thought of my death somewhat… tranquil. Wow, real deep. But seriously, my death could've happened in a more… different way. It's just that… oh, how to explain? I just find the place calming, many things happened here: my death, my rebirth, my Guardianship… many memories, mostly good. Maybe that's why I'm attracted here.

Anyway, I sat still; the Wind whistled around me as they danced around the fallen leaves and twigs as they twirled around the trees. The sun was hidden in a thick veil of clouds, yet scattered rays managed to pierce through the veil as they illuminated random spots of the landscape. The air smelled faintly of rain. I was aware of all of this as I sat and thought.

.

_How powerful will this guy be?_

.

_Will we be okay? Are we enough?_

.

_How are we going to beat him?_

_._

_How much have I changed?_

_._

This brought another wave of questions that I have yet to sort into priorities. But I came up with one question that towered over all my problems at the moment:

_How will Jamie react?_

I stiffened. My heart immediately clenched at the pain I would surely inflict on the child should I leave without saying goodbye. Okay, so saying goodbye was required as part of the solution. Should I tell him what we're going up against? Probably.

_What if we don't make it back? Should I really keep Jaime waiting for us?_

I reeled. My heart and brain was beating fast. The temperature around the lake dropped considerably and a gusty North Wind swept out of nowhere. I drifted from my meditative position in mid-air and floated down to the lake's surface, causing frost patterns to emanate and decorate the lake. A few moments, later the lake was frozen solid for a good six feet or so.

_No. I won't do that to him. Better a have your heart broken than your hope held high and crushed underfoot. Besides, we'll come back._

_We have to._

* * *

Two days later, I tapped on Jamie's window early in the morning. The sun had not even risen yet. The wind that howled outside of Jamie's window was cool, and I vaguely wondered why Jamie closed it in the first place. The boy was sleeping soundly inside, his mouth slightly agape as Sandy's dream sand continued to grant him the sweet dreams he so deserved. A fresh burst acidic _guilt_ fried my heart as I imagined Jamie's broken face when I told him that I was leaving for good.

I tapped more insistently; Sandy's dream sand faded into nonexistence as Jamie stirred. I put my palm against the window pane. Delicate frost patterns began to creep up the glass as Jamie awoke. He rubbed his sleepy eyes into staring at the frost pattern I created. He smiled widely, his eyes alight. My heart clenched again. It's been happening a lot lately. I breezed into his room, not bothering to close the window since I expected to be gone after ten minutes, tops.

I wasn't even settled down when Jamie immediately came over and said. "Jack, what's wrong?"

I winced internally. I looked at him while keeping my head bowed; I couldn't look at him straight in the eye while I literally broke the kid's heart.

"Jamie… something's come up," I said, keeping the emotion out of my voice as I sat on his bed. I relished in the warmth in the brought me for a split-second before returning my attention to the concerned and confused child before me.

"What is it?" he asked, his face scrunched up in concern as he eyed me while standing up.

"There's something you should know…" I began.

* * *

For five whole minutes, he said nothing. His eyes were wide, and glistening with unshed tears. I resisted the urge to hug him then and there. Because then he would know I never wanted to leave him in the first place. I waited eagerly for him to say something.

Another five minutes, the cold wind outside wrapped around us like a coat of frost. I immediately regretted not closing the window on Jamie's behalf. I stopped waiting for a response after five more minutes of waiting.

He took a deep breath. A small hope shone inside me, yet, it was crushed when Jamie never said another word. I gazed at him one last time, remembering his brown, messy hair, his chocolate eyes, and the innocence that radiated through and through. I turned around, and I summoned the Wind to take me to North's workshop.

"Jack!" he called.

"Yes, Jamie?" I asked, my voice giving way to hope.

"Umm… I…" he stuttered. I smirked, mentally. Jamie was just too cute.

.

.

.

_Cute?_

I stiffened. But thankfully, Jamie didn't notice as he was still trying to find a way to speak his thoughts.

"IthinkIloveyou" I heard mutter low and fast. I didn't hear him, but I thought he just said "I think I love you".

_Crap._

"Huh?" I asked, feigning innocence. Maybe I'm just assuming. That's right. Maybe I just imagined him saying those words.

_But why would I imagine something like that?_

"I think I. love. you." He finally managed to say. He punctuated the last three words. My frozen heart soared. Was I expecting this all along? The boy's voice was thick with emotion. My soaring heart clenched once more at the pain I inflicted upon it. His voice… it was too sad—too _worn_—to belong to a thirteen-year-old.

"So please… don't go." He said, his eyes began to glisten with unshed tears. I stared at him; my heart was being torn apart by his teary eyes. I can't forget his voice, so full of emotion… too much emotion for a thirteen-year-old to have. I tried to convey all of what I'm feeling into that moment; my regret, my pain, my _love_.

I inched closer, and I leaned in. Jamie continued to watch with teary eyes, though they were now cautious and wary. Our lips met.

* * *

It was my first kiss, a fact I would never let anyone know.

Yet when I pulled away, I imagined I felt Jamie wince at the loss of contact. I looked at him with confusion. Wasn't that one kiss enough?

"What's wrong?" I asked. My eyes betrayed the sadness and the hope I felt at that moment.

"Now that… I'm just…" he stammered. He was on the verge of sobbing; his breathing began to pick up. Then, he bowed his head and began to shake uncontrollably. Pitiful sounds rose from his throat and I immediately rushed over to him and pulled him into a tight hug.

He continued to sob as I whispered sweet nothings to his ear, all the while dreading the moment when I would have to let go of my precious believer.


	2. Level Up

**HI GUYZ! Thanks for all those people who Faved this story. Here's Chapter 2! :)))**

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**Ch****apter 2: Level Up**

A few days after I left Jamie, the Guardians concluded that it was the time to act. We were planning on riding the sleigh, much to Bunny's anxiety. He immediately said that he would take his holes. But to my surprise, North didn't object. But just as we were about to board the sleigh, and Bunny about to disappear into his hole, the Moon shone.

"Wait!" North shouted. Everybody stilled. The elves continued to work outside the Globe room, their jingling of their bells the only sound aside from the occasional impatient huff of the reindeer.

Then a pillar of moonlight shone through the domed roof of the globe room. It broke into five more miniature columns of light which slowly compressed into tiny globules, each of them crystallizing to form a sort of shard. They arranged themselves in a line.

Then their color shifted;

The shard on the most left turned golden yellow. Then green. Then pink. Then red, and finally, blue.

I floated off the sleigh to get a closer look.

"What is it?" I said to no one in particular. Everyone shrugged but North, who was looking at the Moon in deep thought. Then he grinned, and then laughed jovially.

"Wonderful!" he exclaimed, his thick Russian accent muddling his statement. "Everyone! Manny give us upgrade!"

Tooth gasped, Bunny arched an eyebrow and bounded out of his hole. Sandy floated alongside me, gazing in wonder at the five shards pulsing with white light.

"Which is ours?" she asked, her gaze lingering to the pink crystal.

"Manny says you'll know." North said, hands already reaching out to grab the red crystal. Bunny reached for the green shard, Tooth grabbed the pink shard, Sandy the yellow one, and I reached for the blue shard.

When our hands closed around the surprisingly smooth surface of the shard, a bright glow of red, yellow, pink, green and blue filled the room. When it died, the shards from Manny were gone.

"Where'd they go?" Tooth asked. Sandy was shooting question marks from his head, also wondering.

"Huh, I wonder where—Argh! Bloody—!" he suddenly shouted. Everybody swiveled to Bunny, we all gasped.

The Pooka was floating two feet off the ground. His form was quivering and his feet were flailing, as if trying to unsuccessfully reach the ground.

"Bunny!" Tooth gasped, flying over to him. "Think heavy, Bunny! Think heavy!"

"Whaddya mean think—oh…" his rant was cut off when he fell on the ground with small "oof".

Everyone was speechless after Bunny's little incident. Sandy was the first to break the silence when he flashed an image of the five crystals and North growing wings.

I had to grin, "North, can you try flying?"

Tooth gasped, then looked North over. "Hmm, North, try thinking of flight."

"Flight?" he questioned. Then he gasped when he began to float a few inches off the ground, but he couldn't reach a foot when he was suddenly yanked back by gravity.

North was rubbing his bottom when Sandy showed an image of a blurry North moving from one place to another.

"He's right, North." Bunny finally spoke, "Your powers could be used to move faster, not fly." He shuddered at the thought of North being faster than the Pooka, but North only grunted in acknowledgement, he stood up.

"What other things do you think changed?" Tooth asked.

Sandy pointed to North, Bunny, Tooth, himself, and me. Then, he made a picture of the five shards. He made a face and fired off question marks.

Everyone only stared. I chuckled. I got good at reading his messages whenever he's too riled up to explain slowly.

"Woah, slow down, dude," I chuckled. "What Sandy's _trying_ to say is that is it okay for us to fight this think while we're still trying to figure out the surprises Manny had in store for us in those crystals?"

"Jack's right," Tooth said. North's eyes immediately landed on her, and he went slack-jawed.

"What?" she said. Me, Bunny and Sandy's gaze followed North's stare. All of us went slack-jawed at the same time.

"_What?"_ she said, color flushing her cheeks at the idea of four men ogling at her.

"Umm… Tooth…" Bunny managed to stutter out. North shook out of his stupor and managed to shuffle over to a corner of the Globe Room, where he took out a full-body mirror. He put it in front of the flushed fairy. Her eyes widened at the sight.

"Oh my…" she breathed.

The multi-colored feathers that made her hair, that were usually made a curved upward style, now fell down to her shoulders. A portion of it framed her tan face, while the rest flowed down her back, glimmering ethereally in the lights of the shop. In fact, it seemed that all of Tooth's feathers now shone, like the sheen of a diamond. Her wings seemed to have doubled in number and strength, because now that I was paying attention, I noticed a slight gust blew from where Tooth hovered.

"Wow…" she said. She turned this way and that, enjoying the sight of the lights bounce off her glimmering feathers.

"I wonder…" North said. He grabbed a small screwdriver that lay in the toolbox near the sleigh.

"What are you doing, North?" I asked as he walked closer to Toothiana, who stopped twirling to stare at the bearded Guardian.

Then he stabbed Toothiana.

.

.

.

.

"Oy!" Bunny yelled, grabbing his boomerangs from his back, and immediately made to pounce when North lifted the screwdriver.

The metal blade was twisted back to itself.

"That's so cool!" I said, purposely ignoring the angry Pooka and the startled Tooth fairy.

* * *

After calming Tooth and Bunny, we decided to postpone our trip for two days. None of us voiced our excitement as we each retreated to our respective places to learn of our new powers.

And none of us voiced the reason why Man in the Moon _had_ to give us additional powers in the first place.

* * *

The next day, we gathered together and discussed what we discovered about our new abilities. Tooth came first, and she positively gushing:

"Oh, my gosh!" she gushed, her violet eyes alight. "Aside from the change in hairstyle and the sparkly armor—" she broke off in a fit of giggles. "—I found out I can use telepathy on all of you!"

"Telepathy?" I asked, arching a brow.

"I can read your minds, and talk to them, too!" she said. I noticed a faint blush rise to her cheeks. North and Bunny fidgeted uncomfortably. Tooth noticed this, too. She immediately laughed.

"Oh, nonsense… I would never read your minds without your permission." She said, though the blush remained. North and Bunny sighed in relief. I smirked.

"_And_ I can do this!" she continued. She flew off to the far end of the Globe Room, in front of an empty wooden panel. She closed her eyes and took a deep breath. She raised her arms; the feathers there bristled like porcupine quills. She pointed to the wooden panel and before I knew it, the sharp sound of wood splintering echoed in my ears.

Sandy clapped when Tooth opened her eyes, but she said, "Wait."

She closed her eyes again, and then she scrunched her eyebrows together, a look of concentration adorning her features. I jumped when the golden feathers that stood on her forehead shone a bright yellow. Then they shot out what seemed like feathers, but were glowing yellow. They embedded themselves alongside the other—what I also assumed were—feathers on the wooden panel.

I was about to voice my "Good job" when the golden feathers began to glow once more.

They exploded.

And the entire wooden panel was destroyed.

North stood, jaw agape, at the now destroyed wooden panel. I held my breath at the possible outburst the jolly Guardian could release at then. But then he laughed so loudly, Tooth and Sandy—who began to snooze—jumped.

"That is wonderful!" he boomed. Joy laced his exclamation as Tooth floated beside me, another blush rising to her cheeks. He immediately called on two yetis to repair the panel, and returned just as Sandy began to exhibit his upgraded abilities:

He first showed off his new ability to multiply himself, as shown when another Sandy tapped Bunny's shoulder. The Pooka jumped, much to my amusement. Then, he showed his ability to release orbs of dream sand that can fight with whips of dream sand like the Guardian himself. Sandy also demonstrated his ability to make these orbs detonate and release dream sand to knock out opponents.

I twitched in anticipation for my turn to show off.

North showed off his new ability to run—or fly—at incredible speeds. He also demonstrated his new ability to summon a various array of weaponry, both medieval and modern (as this included a machine gun and a grenade launcher).

"I show you something," he said. He walked off, summoning multitudes of weapons and laying them in _midair_.

"Woah…" I gawked. Bunny arched a brow and Tooth made an impressed "ooh".

"That is not fun part." North said. He smirked, but then he suddenly raised his hands. The weapons, which were frozen in mid-air, all pointed at us. I gulped.

"I control them like army!" he boomed, before he laughed heartily, before he snapped his fingers and his arsenal disappeared in a flash of light.

"I make them explode, too if I want," he said, before moving to stand beside Bunnymund. "What about you, Aster?"

Aster smirked; he hopped over to a nearby window. He opened it and, though he shivered, held out his paw parallel to the ground hundreds of feet below. He closed his eyes. I suddenly tensed. Something was _moving_ underneath the snow, something _alive_. My eyes flew open at the same time Bunny's did. A few moments later, a rather thick stalk crawled through the window and rubbed against Bunny's paws. North's eyes widened as he hesitantly approached the plant, as if it was an alien creature which, in its place in the Pole, kind of is.

"Miracle," he murmured, gently stroking the stalk like an affectionate owner. Bunny's smirk widened.

"Yeah, mate. But check this out." He said. North drew his hand away Bunny grabbed the first thing he could find: a large chunk of wood from Tooth's demonstration earlier.

He placed it in a good ten feet from the stalk. He closed his eyes. His hand began to twitch, and the stalk responded with a twitch of its own. Bunny lashed out his arm, the stalk mimicked his movements, growing and extending until it towered over the chunk of wood. Bunny mimed opening and closing his fist. The stalk wrapped itself around the slab of wood. The Pooka mimed squeezing an invisible object, while the stalk mirrored his movements, but this time, it squashed the slab to rubble.

"Wow…" Tooth said. Sandy clapped.

"What about you, Frostbite?" Bunny asked, sitting down beside the alien plant. He grabbed an egg and paint out of nowhere and proceeded to paint.

I smirked at the Pooka. I floated over to the stalk that continued to writhe at the absence of the Pooka. I approached it, and I felt Bunny's suspicious gaze pierce my back.

"Nice plant, Kangaroo." I said, deliberately teasing the Australian. He narrowed his eyes and stood up. I immediately somersaulted over the squirming mass of life and straddled it like a cowboy.

"Mind if I…" I raised my hand and snapped my fingers. A tongue of fire, as azure as a cloudless sky, sparked from my fingers and burned brightly. As I expected, Bunny stopped. And _more _to my amusement, he gaped at the flame that continued to lick at my fingertips. The rest of Guardians stood there, all mirroring expressions of disbelief.

I put the tip of my index finger on the wiggling mass. Slowly, the blue tongue of fire fell through the green mass of life, like it was nothing more than air. Then, in the blink of an eye, it froze. I mean, _literally_, froze. I was now straddling on what seems like a frozen caterpillar. Bunny's eyes widened.

"…chill for a while?" I finished. I leaned back on the stalk and crossed my legs, feigning indifference and calm. Bunny was the first to break out of his stupor when he pointed at me accusingly.

"I am a _bunny_, mate."he said, I laughed at the late reaction. North whispered, "Incredible." Tooth and Sandy could only nod in agreement.

"Oh! And you remember that bolt of ice I shot at Pitch last time?" I asked, jumping and floating just above the Pooka's reach. They nodded, Bunny still glaring.

"Well…" I practically bounced in excitement. I spotted the debris from Tooth's little demo a little while ago (wow, aren't we resourceful?) and grinned. I raised my staff. But instead of pointing it to the pile of wood, I pointed to the air above it.

"Storm!" I yelled. My staff pulsed with a white light before firing a crackling beam of blue. But instead of hitting the far wall, it stilled in midair. I withdrew my staff, cutting off the continuous supply of energy. The beam began to swirl above the wood, and slowly formed into a dark storm cloud. I pointed to a beam that protruded from the pile. Immediately the cloud crackled with blue lightning before firing off a bolt at the piece of wood. It froze immediately, then it shard into a million shards of ice. I raised my hand and the shards all flew to my outstretched palm. They all swirled in a flurry of white before finally compressing to form a tiny little star.

"Amazing!" boomed the Guardian of Joy. I smiled. Bunny grunted, Tooth fawned about it to her mini-fairies (who suddenly appeared out of nowhere), and Sandy gave me a thumbs up. I dissipated the storm cloud with a wave of my hand. I coughed into my hand, getting their attention.

"And one last thing," I said. My fingers began to twitch, until now I never got the hang of how to do this trick. But I hope that only now will I ever need to do it. It reminds me too much of my invisibility, of my _not being seen_.

I took a deep breath and dove headfirst into the pile of wood.

* * *

Darkness; darkness so black it was almost blue. Then I squinted, it _was_ blue. It was growing lighter and lighter until I could make out the ceiling of a room.

I groaned and sat up; I winced when my head began to pound. I looked around. The room was sparsely decorated, with a ceiling of white—I realized the blue I was seeing were beams crisscrossing the ceiling—and a floor with wooden tiles. The bed was a snug fit, and a small nightstand was right beside. My staff was propped against it.

A simple, wooden door lay at the foot of the bed. It opened with a small creak, and Tooth's head popped in.

"Hi, Jack." She said, a sheepish smile gracing her features. "How are you?"

"Killer headache," I mumbled, holding my head in my hands. I winced when my hands came across a small bump beneath my hair. Great.

"You'd expect that when you dive headfirst to a pile of oak," she said. This time, I could hear the suppressed laughter beneath her tone. I flushed blue.

"I was supposed to phase through it," I mumbled, my head still in my hands.

"Huh?" she asked while her hair—or feathers—shimmered in the fluorescent light. Sometimes I find it hard to believe her body is now stronger than any diamond.

"The thing I was supposed to show you," I muttered. "I was supposed to phase through the pile of wood and they would freeze and shatter."

Tooth's eyes widened at another discovery. "That's amazing, Jack!" she exclaimed.

"Yeah," I said, not entirely happy.

"What's wrong? Aren't you happy?" she asked. Her violet eyes were giving me a questioning look. I found it hard to talk to her when her attention isn't divided to her other fairies.

"I am..." I said, breaking off. "It's just that… after 300 years of no one seeing me, I still can't forget the feeling of no one seeing me… no one knowing I was standing right there in front of me, and—"

"—just walking right through you." The fairy finished. Her eyes were sad, now. Tooth understood Jack's pain to a certain degree, though not as close as Bunny. Tooth didn't know what it felt like for someone to just walk right through you; the emptiness of it, like someone's pushing you out from the inside; the loss of your own identity.

I nodded. Then I knelt in front of the nightstand, and then I motioned Tooth to do the same. She followed, her eyebrows raised in confusion.

I took a deep breath. I thought of emptiness, the Wind, how it is absent and present at the same time. I thought of my 300 years of seclusion. I focused on these thoughts as I channeled my energy to my right arm and I thrust it _within_ the stand.

Tooth gasped. My arm was transparent, like a ghost. Although, I could see crackles of blue energy as ice encrusted the wood. I withdrew my arm. The stand shattered.

Tooth was silent. Yet, her gaze settled on me. I felt the understanding emanate from her in waves. She opened her arms. I let her hug me, her feathers still surprisingly soft despite the toughness.

"You can do this." She breathed, her eyes closed.

'_Yeah, we can.' _I thought, before I stood. I held my hand for her to take. She took it with a smile. We walked to the door and to the sleigh, where everyone was waiting. I never noticed the absence of a certain Pooka until we were already nearing the threat.

* * *

**I absolutely _enjoyed _upgrading the Guardian's powers. More BOOM BOOM later during the fight scene! R&R! :D**


	3. ANNOUNCEMENT TO READERS

**Readers, announcement:**

**I have started a poll on what foes the Guardians should face in the next chapter of this story. Please vote ASAP for the poll will close on May 11, 2013. Thank you all for your support in me so far and your consideration to review, follow or favorite my fanfics. I LOVE YOU GUYS! *hugs all around***

**So **_**Yuki onna, **_**daaaahling, this poll first! But you're free to PM me your choice, cuz after all, you prompted me to start this epic POV of our beloved Jack Frost! :D **

**Ciao, daahlings:**

**DeimosFire99**


	4. The Darkness

**Daahlings, I give you all LEAVING HOME 3! THE RESULT OF THE POLL WILL BE ANNOUNCED IN THE NEXT CHAPTER. SAD TO SAY NOT MANY VIEWERS VOTED, BUT ONE WAS ABLE TO MAKE A DIFFERENCE AND I HAVE A BIG BATTLE SCENE TO WRITE. SO ADIOS. X3**

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**Chapter 3: The Darkness**

"_I think I. love. you."_

_._

_._

_._

"_So please… don't go."_

Argh! Those words repeating in my head, I wanted to bang it against the wall for Moon knows how long until I can forget about them. We were on the sleigh flying over Madagascar, obscured by the clouds. The moon was high tonight, illuminating the sands of the beach with an eerie glow. We passed by civilization a few hours ago, still above the clouds to keep out of sight from any stragglers at this hour. I vaguely wondered what Jamie was doing right now. I stopped thinking about it once I felt an acidic sensation boil my heart and mist my eyes. Damn.

I felt the Wind fly by me. The sleigh was going not too fast, but fast enough for the whispering of the Wind to be a howl in my ear. We were above open water, now. Waves rippled the reflection of the heavens as we skimmed through their reflections. I fired a bolt of ice at random at the water below; making a small patch of ice that I was sure would melt in the morning.

Before we left, Tooth realized that with her telepathy upgraded to the extent of communicating to the other Guardians, her mental connection to her fairies also increased. Now, she's capable of communicating with any and all fairies wherever on the globe.

Right now, Tooth was flying beside the sleigh, her hummingbird wings matching the speed we were on. Her eyes were closed and she was muttering some words under her breath. Sometimes, I would hear some loud exclamations like "Poland!" or "Africa!" or "Rio!" I realized she was issuing commands to her mini-fairies stationed throughout the world, and that she was powerful enough to maintain her speed and her mass telepathy at the same time. I was impressed.

Sandy just finished delivering the children their dreams in the Eastern Hemisphere, and now he was snoozing away on the sleigh, trying to get some shut-eye before the confrontation with the darkness. I probably should get some rest, too. But I couldn't stop thinking about Jamie; his eyes, his voice, that kiss.

_I. love. you._

I closed my eyes to the whisper of Jamie's voice, that last kiss.

_So please… don't go._

* * *

I awoke to Sandy's shivering.

I realized with a jolt that we were now soaring over the Arctic plains. The sky that was once dotted with stars and illuminated by the light of the Moon was now completely covered with an inky roiling haze. We were slightly below it, the reason for the harsh, biting wind that chilled Tooth and Sandy. I reached up and was surprised to feel liquid condense, and immediately freeze, on my hand. Lightning forked the roiling mass above us, and my ears pounded with the crack of thunder that followed.

Up ahead, I could see the dark clouds swirling above the ice. The harsh wind picked up and the sleigh was beginning to rock slightly. With a surge of panic, I thought; '_Where's Tooth?_'

"I'm here." she yawned behind me. I whirled around; Tooth rubbed sleep grit put of her eyes and stretched her arms. "I got in a few hours ago," she explained. "I needed to catch up on some tooth work."

I nodded and looked forward. We were nearing the swirling mass of dark clouds, and I realized that the sleigh might not make it. That thing was Wizard of Oz-worthy!

"North! How are we gonna pass that thing?" Tooth shouted over the gale, her voice immediately carried away by the Wind.

"Jack!" he bellowed.

"On it!" I yelled back. I jumped of the sleigh and flew toward the swirling wind mass. I stopped a few feet away when I noticed lightning flash behind me. A resounding crack followed by the crunch of splintering wood and metal rang through my ears as I saw North, Tooth, and Sandy fall.

"NO!" I yelled. I felt disbelief and fear course through me. I remembered Pitch; my staff breaking, Baby Tooth falling through the crevice. The hopelessness, the fear, the _anger_… I felt it come to me full force as I summoned a gust of Wind from the swirling mass to cushion the fall of my friends.

_I won't abandon them. Not again._

Power coursed through me. I closed my eyes as I felt the Moon's blessing included in that powerful flow; the ability to summon bolts of ice through the form of lightning strikes, the granted intangibility of my frozen body to freeze others, the ice flames… I felt everything.

But I also felt something else; it was like a drop of water on a dehydrated man's throat, the fresh mountain air after a cramped room full of sweaty people. It was something you can't get enough of… an _addiction_.

_Thrive on his despair._

I opened my eyes. Someone was calling my name, a loud bellow that was nearly carried away by the heavy gusts.

"Jack!"

It was North. I looked down, he was desperately calling for my attention, waving his hands back and forth while his beard was flying all over his face.

"Calm Wind!" he yelled, his Russian accent coating his tone heavily. "Bunny will come and open hole to eye!"

I nodded. I raised my staff and concentrated. The Wind was my mother, the Wind was my friend. It's not my servant, I have to suggest it and exert influence, not dominance. I asked for it calm, and I felt it heed to my command. I felt the decrease, yet a gale continued to push us back and away from the vortex.

"North! It's not me!" I tried to explain, my voice wasn't being carried away anymore, if possible, it seemed to magnify my voice and make it loud enough to be heard over the dark wind.

"Come down! Bunny's here!"

I nodded and floated down to a rather disheveled Pooka whose ears were rapidly being coated in snow and frost. He glared at me.

"What's the deal, Frostbite?" he yelled, his Australian accent as strong as ever, "Can't ya calm it?"

"It's not his fault," Tooth rapidly replied, eyes glancing over to the black vortex swirling a few feet away. "This Wind isn't his."

"Not hi—?" Bunny was interrupted when a rather loud crack of thunder pealed the sky. I looked to my left, the ice was scorched, and water was sloshing through the large cracks.

"Everybody, in hole! NOW!" North yelled, jumping (and squeezing) through the earthen hole ringed with ice, Tooth and Bunny followed, and so did Sandy. I came last, coating the entrance with ice before Bunny closed it.

We raced down the earthen tunnels, Bunny leading the way, followed by North, Tooth, Sandy, and then me. The Pooka flew down the tunnels, leaving us to follow him. The wind above us continued to howl, but it was muffled by the hidden beneath the layers of ice. Bunny eventually stopped, he tapped his foot once more as we emerged in the eye of the vortex.


	5. The Eye

**You'll notice a somthin' while your reading... :3 ANYWAY ENJOY! **

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**Chapter 4: The Eye**

A flat expanse of snow and ice greeted us as we emerged from the hole.

I looked up; bolts of lightning that were frozen in the moments of their zenith—their flash—zigzagged through the sky like some sort of net. Their light illuminated the landscape, paling it in contrast to the darkness outside of the eye. The clouds surrounding us blocked all of the chaos outside.

The eye extended for miles! I gulped. The vortex is larger than I thought. Far away, the black mass of clouds continued to swirl around the eye, obscuring the outside and protecting the inside. But unlike the tornados I encountered, this wasn't moving. It's like the storm outside was for _protection,_ not destruction.

I could see a small figure about twenty feet away, it was either gesturing for our attention, or it was waving its hands like some macabre puppet with no strings attached.

North motioned for us to advance silently. We heeded, hiding behind some of the larger chunks of ice and the shallow crevices. I noticed now that the figure was not waving its hands randomly, it was like it was conducting something, an orchestra of sorts.

At the corner of my eye, I saw North bristle. His eyes flashed dangerously as he stood from the crevice we were hiding in and began to stalk the figure openly.

"North!" Bunny hissed, his eyes darting from North's wide girth to the eerie conductor. The Guardian of Joy paid no heed as he continued to stalk, swords raised.

He was a few feet away, close enough to discern some description from the figure when he froze.

And so did we.

"Crap," was all Bunny had time to mutter before we lifted from the jagged crevice and carried to where North was. The Guardian was struggling futilely, hands opening and closing as if trying to summon back his swords.

The figure turned. I realized that the figure was a hunched crone draped in a rather expensive black shawl. Her eyes were black, as in _completely_ black. Tooth and Bunny were silent, but I saw Santa fuming with unreleased anger.

"Eris." He practically growled. The woman smiled in recognition, her teeth slightly yellow and sharp, like a dog's. I heard Tooth wince slightly from my left.

"_Nicholas, what a pleasant surprise._" Okay, that was weird. It was like she was more of a voice in my head, than a voice I would hear from the outside. It had a weird echoing quality, like it was being said through a long corridor. I looked around, and I saw Tooth's eyes widen.

"_She's a telepath_!" She whispered in our minds. Her words sounded excited, yet I could hear in her tone she was worried now. Another person could see what I was thinking… what I was worrying over…

Oh, joy.

"_Yes, child. And so are you, I see._" The woman, Eris, said. "_Come to stop me, eh?_"

"What are you _doing_?" Bunny snarled, he was desperately trying to fight off her hold on our bodies. I could feel him trying to reach the ice below, summoning tendrils of vines to come to his aid. But it was hard without contact to the earth miles below.

"_Me? I'm simply _eating_._"

I shivered at her nonchalance. But the way she emphasized "eating" just begged the question:

"On what?" I said, through gritted teeth.

She looked at me, her black eyes narrowing as she took in my struggling.

"_Why, I feed on everything you try to banish from their hearts!_" she said, her black eyes twinkling with something akin to delight. I looked over to Tooth whose brow was furrowed and eyes closed. The woman followed my gaze and looked over to the fairy. She flicked her hand and suddenly Tooth screeched.

"NO!" North yelled. He opened his palm once more. The weapons finally heeded to his call as he summoned twin crossbows, all of them pointing over to Eris.

"I'm alright…" Tooth breathed her eyes glassy. She glared at Eris, who was cackling.

"You feed on everything we banish from their hearts." Tooth clarified, eyes straying over to each one of the captured Guardians. "You feed on their sadness, their despair, their apathy. You poison their hearts by feeding them negativities in life, and you make them forget about the goodness in them. And once they've succumbed to the darkness, you feed on the violence they wreak."

"_Very good, child. And here I thought I would have to explain it all one Guardian at a time!_" Eris said in mock surprise.

"_And I see Manny managed to give you all an upgrade._" She pointed at the twin crossbows hovering in midair beside North. "_You see, Manny and I go way back. He was the protector of the dreams and I was the—shall we say—cohort of our dear Pitch Black._

"_When Pitch Black ushered in the first Dark Age, I reveled in the chaos he wrought; the fear, the despair, the havoc of it all! I could just taste it._" She took a deep breath and made a satisfied sound in the back of her throat. I resisted the urge to gag.

"_Then when he was felled by Manny, well, that just wouldn't do._" She continued, her black eyes glinting. "_However, the chaos was more than sufficient to last me millennia! But that would run out anyhow, and soon I would have to feed again… and again… and again. Too much hassle! _

"_So, every thousand years or so, I would stage the perfect drama: one full of chaos, unrequited love, despair, carnage, confusion, and wrath. And I would _feast_._"

"Drama?" I asked, not totally grasping her idea.

"_Yes!_" she cackled. "_Drama, my dear Jackson! The likes which you and your spat with that Bennett boy will never even begin to match up to!_"

I flushed in anger and disbelief; I could see heads turn my way as Eris's words sank in.

_Drama?_

"Bitch." I hissed. I summoned orbs of blue flame to bombard the now cackling woman. Her eyes widened as she erected a dome of crackling, purple energy. Her control over our bodies was released, and we all slumped to the ground. Sandy went over to Tooth, who was rubbing her forehead.

"_Fools!_" she hissed when the dome fell down. "_You cannot stop me! I am chaos incarnate! I __**am**__ darkness _itself_!"_

She raised her hands.

"_Feast._"

Then everything went black.

* * *

**See that? The stalling? :P Anyways, the REAL fight is coming up next! Yuki onna, daahling I hope to please! :3**


	6. The Pain of Loss, The Light of Love

**Hi guys! Im currently on a VERY famous beach somewhere, and i just got the last burst of inspiration i needed to finish! :3 HERE YOU GOOO!**

* * *

**Chapter 5: The Pain of Loss, The Light of Love**

Apparently, we weren't unconscious for long. As soon as we hit the ground, the sound of thunder pealing through the heavens stirred my mind back into consciousness.

I sat up and rubbed the back of my head. Tooth, North, Sandy, and Bunny all awoke too. We glanced around, Eris was gone.

"_Foolish Guardians,_" the voice of Eris mocked from nowhere. "_Did you honestly believe you can defeat me?! I am Discord Incarnate!_"

The ice around us groaned and cracked. Bunny was immediately in the air, followed by Tooth and Sandy. I summoned the Wind to lift North as the ground beneath our feet gave way.

Bunny swore in Australian under his breath, much to my amusement. But a loud rumbling behind us made the amusement die in my throat like a candle to a blustering gale.

The old crone that was Eris before we blacked out was gone. In her place, standing atop a floating cloud of black, was a pale, young woman. Her hair was black, long and thick, her skin was pale, and she wore a billowing black dress that matched the color of her lips. She cackled, showing her pointed teeth and long, snake-like tongue.

"_Tremble._" She said. Her voice held a deep undercurrent, one that made the air around us vibrate. She raised her hands. I saw the dark cloud on which she was standing on expand and grow, filling the air with a sea of darkness. Then the darkness compressed to form whip-like projections, almost like tentacles to some macabre octopus.

They lashed out; hitting Bunny and almost North. But he managed to summon his twin swords just in time to sever the projections, which dissolved into air. Tooth managed to avoid capture by willing her diamond-like feathers to bristle like porcupine quills and fly around the scene. Add that to her razor sharp wings, equals a sharp-ass fairy that right now is zoning in on Eris.

"_Tooth, be careful!_" I projected mentally; she nodded, never taking her eyes off the chaos spirit, whose hands were still conducting her ghastly orchestra.

Bunny was flying to my right, firing egg bombs and using his boomerangs to slice through any of the tentacle grasping on to him. North was holding up well; gliding on the tentacles in an attempt to draw closer to Eris and hacking on any that gets in his way with his swords. Sandy was atop his own cloud of golden sand, sending his own wave of tentacles to fight Eris's.

I dodged and froze some of the appendages that managed to grab hold of me, but I noticed that they were simply multiplying. Their numbers increasing with each one disintegrated.

"_Eris must be taken down._"North relayed, his connection strained with each passing minute of combat. "_These are but distractions_."

"_Roger._" I thought. I summoned the Wind to encircle me, preventing any tentacles to ensnare me while I prepared myself. With a deep breath I imagined tongues of flame dancing of my body, licking and freezing the dark appendages, giving the other Guardians time to strike the very heart of the matter.

My powers conceded, following the mental image I conjured up. The ice fire flew around the eye, freezing and shattering the tentacles it came into contact with. North and Bunny flew over to the dome Eris erected on her cloud of darkness; North summoned numerous grenades and dynamite, Bunny was able to charge his boomerangs... with what, I don't know… but it crackled with green energy as he prepared to hack Eris's dome wide open.

On the other side of the dome, Tooth fired salvo after salvo of her razor feathers. On intervals, she would fire her golden feathers, detonating them once they pierced the dark shield. Sandy was a little to her right; he summoned numerous copies of himself and they were now firing blast after blast of glowing sand.

The cloud on which the dome was standing on still shifted, showing that more tentacles would show soon unless Eris's focal point–the cloud—was destroyed.

I took a deep breath. The words "they believe" zoomed through my mind. I found myself repeating them like they were some sort of mantra. I summoned the Wind to carry me over to the cloud, the chant unfaltering. When I was a few meters away from the first dark wisps that made up Eris's cloud, I took another deep breath. The scent of mildew and something rotting overpowered my senses and I immediately coughed and gagged. I asked the Wind to blow a quick gust of snow to overpower the stench. I took a deep breath and plunged.

* * *

I remember one time, when I was at Jamie's house; we were looking up "videos", moving pictures that showed a story or some other, on the "Internet" on Jamie's desktop; a rather complicated machine that worked using electricity. We were "surfing the net", and we found this website called "YouTube". It had all these kinds of videos.

Anyway, we got stuck all afternoon watching these dark-skinned—not tanned—woman ranting at each other with some sort of accent. Jamie's friend explained that the accent was "Jersey", and that the funny videos we were watching were called "parodies". We looped the video where one of the women said "Oh, hell no!" We laughed so hard that day. I remembered it was more fun because Jamie's parents were gone for the day and Sophie was at a close friend's house, leaving the Bennett home all alone to us.

Well, back to the present:

I was floating in darkness, so black it was almost blue. Notice that this was the same description I used in my earlier incident with the phasing? And the first thought that crossed my mind was:

'_Oh, hell no!_' I groaned. I waved my arms around me, trying to feel anything... anything at all. When I closed my eyes, the darkness was only darker. I opened them again. There was something weird about this darkness; it seemed to move, to shift restlessly. It didn't have a smell, though. I groaned again.

'_Damn, wish there was some light around here._' I muttered to myself in frustration.

A bright flash of light illuminated the sea of black that dominated my surroundings. I shielded my eyes, gasping my surprise. When I was adjusted enough, I lowered my arm. I noticed that the bright light came from a glowing orb as small as a snowflake.

"Aww…" I said, "Cute, powerful little thing, aren't you?" I reached out to touch it, but then it was snuffed out. How would I know that? Because I actually _saw_ a clawed hand reach over, and just snuff the little thing out… like a flickering candle flame.

"Hey!" I said, indignant at the sudden loss of light.

"Jack! Jack?" a familiar girl's voice suddenly yelled from somewhere. A sudden chill crept up my spine (which is saying a lot knowing my occupation as a spirit of winter) and I whirled around.

"Sis?" I hoarsely called out, vaguely wondering what had happened to my voice.

She stood there… just _stood _there_…_ with the darkness retreating from her form, giving her a sort of radiance. She was staring wide-eyed below her like the day she almost fell through the ice. She looked up at me; at the time, I failed to notice that black holes that passed for her eyes. She kept glancing from me and whatever was below her, which I assumed was the thin ice.

I rushed forward, summoning the Wind to speed me up. A gust heeded my call, and I shot towards her faster than a bullet. But when she was arm length's away, when my fingers were about to feel her once more, she disappeared.

"What?" I gasped. I never noticed the tears that began to blur my vision and cascade down my cheeks, creating small rivers of icy sadness.

Sobbing began to echo all around me as I stumbled—well, floated— through the darkness. I continued to scream for my sister as I blindly groped through the inky nothingness that swallowed my vision. At that moment, I wished for nothing more than to get to my sister, say everything is alright. That everything was fine… that _I _was fine.

"Where are you?!" I yelled into the void. Emotion coated my voice as I continued to fly around the nightmare, searching… searching… searching for my sister. The sobbing ceased, but sniffles and hiccups remained here and there, echoing. I stopped to catch my breath, the tears flowing freely down my face as my chest clenched at the memory of losing my sister.

.

.

.

.

.

.

"Jack?" another child's voice yelled from somewhere.

_What the hell is going on?_

"Jamie?!" I yelled out, the hoarseness of my voice disappearing. In its place, fear amplified my tone, allowing it to echo and be swallowed by the void that surrounded me. I whirled around and about, looking for that boy. My Jamie…

"Jack!" A more solid voice called me from behind. I turned around; Jamie was floating a few yards away, his face alight with childish excitement. Again, I failed to notice the black holes that passed for his eyes. But with the excitement of seeing him again, can you blame me?

His brown hair ruffled in an unseen breeze as he ran towards me; he wore the pajamas I came to love as my favorite. The day he became my first believer, he wore those clothes. They meant something—_mean_ something.

I flew to him, my arms outstretched once more. The rational part of my brain warned me that this could be another trick—an illusion. But right then, I cared for nothing more than to hold that little boy in my arms.

"Jamie!" I yelled, hardly containing my joy.

We collided with each other, but by some miracle I continued to hold him in my arms as his shoulder started to—

"Gah! Jamie... what—?" I gasped to the sudden cold feeling that pulled at my stomach. Jamie looked up from our embrace, his black eyes flowing tears of blood.

"Why did you leave me, Jack?" he asked his face suddenly fearful. I struggled to get out from my hold on him, but his grip on my shoulder hardened like vice grips, rendering removal impossible and leaving me to clench my teeth at the pressure.

"Jamie, no—I—" the words died on my throat as Jamie began to age rapidly before my eyes; the full face that met me when he was a child grew to his teenage years; the awkwardness of his teenage life replaced by the budding maturity of manhood; the budding maturity fully growing and maturing to be the man Jamie was meant to be; and finally the beautiful adult was replaced by a wrinkly, old man who leaned into me for most of his support.

"I loved you." He whispered as age crept into his tone as coughing interrupted at intervals. Finally, he whispered:

"Why would you break me, Jack?" he said to me. Then the skin melted away into dust and I was left staring at a skeleton whose hollow sockets stared into me, whose hands continued to clench around my shoulders like he was still living, whose sorrow reigned in my heart as I desperately tried to _get him off_.

"Stop! Please! Stop it!" I begged to no one. The skeleton continued to hold onto my shoulders as tears flowed freely from my eyes. I was barely choking back sobs, now. The darkness and sadness from my leaving came back to me tenfold. And I'm slowly becoming to the broken-hearted mess that I promised not to become.

Jamie—no, not Jamie... that _thing_ was spewing darkness, now. The radiance that it gave off was now being consumed by the void around us; it seeped through its ribs, its sockets, everywhere. I could feel it engulf me, too. The darkness flowed into me as easy as it was air. But it wasn't easy, far from it; it was like inhaling salt water; it burned my nose and set my throat ablaze. I gagged and wretched, tears of pain flowing down my eyes.

It's flowing, I can feel it. The darkness was venom in my body; twisting my nerves for me to experience pain at the very thought of the word. It numbed my senses and it was slowly closing in on my mind and on my heart.

_Goodbye, Jamie_. I whispered one last time, before I felt darkness numb my mind and close my eyes to the void.

**~_`O'_~**

_Somewhere, deep inside the heart that was swallowed by the Darkness of Eris, a small pinprick of light shone like the shard of a long-lost jewel. It shone brilliantly; its radiance small yet persisting. The tendrils that worked their way within were banished as one thought powered this shred of hope:_

'_He loves me, too.'_

**~_`O'_~**

Once again, my mind flashed back to that day with Jamie, watching those people rant in their funny accents. I remembered Jamie's laugh (he said it was "awkward") ringing around the house. I remembered the tears that came from hours of laughing flow down from the boy's face. I remember the hot chocolate (well, cold choco pop for me, as the drink froze when I touched it) we shared. I remember the light snow that fell outside as me and Jamie rushed to play snowball fights. I remember lying in the snow with him, Jamie making snow angels while I made replicas of angels with frost.

I remembered all those things when a bright flash of light chased away the darkness; the laughter, the joy, the _fun_—

Another flash of light; however, this time, I heard laughter ringing through the white nothingness that surrounded me. I heard tracks sliding on snow and the whoops of an excited child. It was then I realized what I was hearing: Jamie's sleigh accident when he was 10. I felt tears come to my eyes at the childhood the boy had—and lost— when the Guardians came into his life.

Tendrils of darkness began to creep into the white, writhing and growing; they slowly banished the light and opened the void that covered my sight before.

"I'm not leaving you again," I said, with conviction to the nothingness. The dark tendrils began to sizzle; the black void that began to overcome the light was being chased away by another flash of light at my words.

I quickly closed my eyes and remembered the fun I had with the boy; the sleigh, defeating Pitch, the Jersey parodies, his first Christmas with the Guardians present, his first visit to the Pole… all those things ran through my mind as I recalled his laughter, his smile, the fun we shared.

Something was beating near my chest. At first, I thought it was my heart, but I quickly dismissed the thought, as I hadn't felt my heart beat in three hundred years. I looked down; a pulsing light glowed from deep inside my hoodie, the whiteness tainted blue by the color. I saw wispy tendrils coming from the zip line; they spread around the white nothingness and the black tendrils, blurring the color and mixing them together like I was looking through an unfocused camera.

Then the smell came; the smell of snow and frost. I didn't really notice how bad I missed the scent of it. Then I felt a harsh, cold gale sweep around me, lifting me up and spinning me around. I laughed; the Arctic winds may be harsh, but they're still part of the Wind… and I am _with_ the Wind.

The distortion lasted a few minutes longer before I saw a hint white, black and blue mix in with the light and darkness, the blurry picture clearing to become the battle scene of the South Pole.

"NO!"

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**Dun dun duuuun... CLIFFHANGER TIME! :P R&R and i promise to finish the next chapter sooner. :3**


	7. Turning Tables

**I shall take this space to apologize for the delay, and to refer you to a feely! oneshot "How". :) Here you go daahlings. :'**

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**Chapter 6: Turning Tables**

"_NO!"_

I was surprised, and slightly amused, when Eris and I said it at the same time. But the fact remains that I said it for a reason:

The Guardians, they were—

"No!" I yelled again, refusing to accept the fact that my friends—my _family_, is _gone._ They were suspended in midair, held aloft my wispy tendrils that came from Eris, who was standing on her cloud again. She was gaping at me, a sight I found deserving of a harsh chuckle.

"I said it before, and I'll say it again: _Bitch_." I hissed. I flew to Eris, who was still staring at me with wide eyes. I willed tongues of fire to lick the air around me. My staff glowed with energy as I summoned the Wind to bring forth hail and ice. They bombarded Eris, who recovered from her shock long enough to erect another dome of darkness on her cloud.

I stopped and growled.

"Scaredy-cat!" I yelled. I ordered the tongues of ice flame to lick at the cloud, freezing and chipping off bits and pieces.

"Ice!" I yelled; immediately, the falling snow clustered around the dome and compressed to form blades of hardened ice. They fired, embedding themselves in the safeguard. I waved my staff, and they detonated, tendrils of frost already beginning to crawl through the openings.

"Hail!" I yelled. The Wind howled as she bombarded the dome with torrents of hail. I smirked as I imagined what Eris must be feeling right now, trapped in her own safety. I suppressed a whoop.

"Lightning!" I yelled, for the last time. My staff glowed once more as I fired a beam of white above the black dome. I watched as a black cloud veined with white and blue materialized, and grinned as lightning began to strike the dome. Veins of ice slowly enveloped the dome, causing, along with the hail and ice weakening other sections of the shield, the barrier to weaken.

I turned my back on the weakening shield and flew over to the Guardians, who were still suspended. As I neared, I noticed, with huge relief, that they weren't dead. In fact, they were only motionless, but their faces held another story.

It was like they were having nightmares; their faces were contorted to pained grimaces, and their bodies were tense, like tightly-coiled rope. I watched as Tooth's mouth twitched, and I thought if that was supposed to be a whimper.

"Guys, wake up!" I tried to touch Bunny, but immediately, thick, tendrils of darkness wrapped around my hands. I gasped as darkness enveloped my vision:

* * *

_Fire. Tongues of flame licked every surface, smoke clogged the air as the smell of death and the sound of pain filled the air. Jack looked around, his blue eyes tearing up with the smoke. He took a step forward and felt not grass, but a soft, wet form._

_It was a Pooka._

_Jack screamed as he stumbled back, only to fall on another dead Pooka. This time, Jack noticed a large spear protruding from the fallen warrior's back. It was made of nightmare sand._

_A roar broke through the screams of agony._

* * *

I gasped once more as I stumbled away from Bunny's immobile form. The tendrils were swirling around the Pooka once more, oblivious my interruption.

I was about to try waking Sandy next when a scream rent the atmosphere.

"Gargh!" I yelled, clapping my hands to my ears as the scream broke through the eye. I glanced over to Eris; her black dome was crumbling, and I could see glances of her pale body through the hail and ice. I gulped. Her form was wreathed in a sort of inky haze where only her pale complexion is noticeable.

I looked over Tooth; the tendrils were wrapping themselves tightly around her diamond-clad form. I watched in horror as her feathers were losing their rainbow hue, turning into a dull gray while her healthy blush was being devoured by a creeping gray that left everything pale and gaunt.

_Tooth! Wake up! _I yelled at her telepathically. Another scream tore through the icy tundra. I covered my ears, until I realized that it's all in my head, Tooth was screaming.

_No! _I yelled. I went over to Tooth, but hesitated at making contact with her. Her skin was so pale and her feathers looked so… _dead_. I tried, instead, to catch her attention telepathically. I focused all of my energy to willing my thoughts on entering hers, to get her to stop screaming. It worked, but pitiful whimpers continued to echo in my skull.

_Tooth? _I called; I winced when the whimpering grew louder. But no scream. _It's me, Jack._

A moment's hesitation, then: _Jack?_

_Yeah, Tooth! I—_

_Jack, it's so dark._

I stuttered, and then I tried again. But to my surprise, I felt something different. Whenever I talked to Tooth (telepathically, I mean), the thoughts and words flew freely, like a winding river. But now, when I tried to broadcast my message to her, I felt it bounce off, like something was blocking me from talking to her. A brief flash of panic coursed through me before I took a deep breath.

_You can do this._ I firmly told myself.

I tried probing for Tooth again, willing my thoughts to enter hers. But that same shield blocked me, and I was getting annoyed. I cast a quick glance back and saw, to my horror, that Eris was slowly rebuilding her dome, thicker and larger than ever. The hail clattered off harmlessly, and the ice didn't even penetrate it.

I groaned and immediately focused. I grinned as an idea popped. I took a deep breath as I imagined my thoughts to compress themselves into tiny pricks, like injections. I loaded everything I had to say, which was basically how to free herself from Eris's control, and I fired.

I imagined more than felt the impact: the block that kept me from communicating with Tooth absorbs the spike, but thoughts are injected quickly before the sliver of an opening was closed once more. I grinned.

Until a loud roar shattered my happy-trip:

**~_`O'_~**

_The Guardian of Memories sat on her haunches, her wings dead. She stared at her hands; her nimble hands that used to hold the memories of every child in the world. Tears blurred her vision of the darkness that surrounded her, and she quickly wiped them away. Her throat was hoarse from the screaming and her temples were throbbing with the psychic scream she just released._

_Her hands twitched as Tooth lifted them up; somehow, she could see herself, but not her surroundings. She was a warm, rosy light, but the darkness didn't lighten. _

_She had seen herself trapped inside a cage made of nightmare sand, her mini-fairies a motionless heap outside. She screamed as she saw black sand creep onto Baby Tooth, and cried as it slowly devoured her unmoving form. Her fairies came shortly afterwards, their bodies disappeared, but their feathers rained down upon the Tooth Fairy inside her cage like some sort of grotesque confetti._

_The cage was gone, now. But she still felt trapped within the darkness. She was too tired to move, and she noticed, to a small degree of alarm, that her rosy light was slowly fading. The darkness crept around her like writhing snakes, eager for another meal._

_She had taken a deep breath when the first tendril of darkness wrapped around her calf, its vice-like grip latching onto her like some macabre leech. Her diamond surface prevented her from feeling anything besides the pressure, but even that was starting to turn uncomfortable._

_Tooth gasped as another tendril wrapped itself around her open palm, and screamed in pain as she felt white-hot heat burn her skin. She willed her feathers to fire at the appendage, they obeyed. But as Toothiana watched, the diamond-like projectiles were absorbed like they were nothing but stones to water. Another tendril latched onto her neck._

_Toothiana gasped at the sudden fire that wrapped itself around her throat. Her eyes burned with tears as she choked on the darkness. Her free hand fumbled with the tendril, wishing for the love of Manny for it to just _let_. _go.

_The tendrils withdrew, and she sobbed in relief. Her body fell limp on the dark nothingness that served as a floor. Tears continued to stream down her face as she tried to calm herself down. She stood up shakily and tried once more to find a way out. It didn't escape her notice how the tendrils released her after her fervent willing. A thoughtful look crossed her features._

"_Light!" she whispered, putting her all her will in that word. She imagined her the darkness around her becoming light._

_A bright flash._

_Toothiana gasped as the black nothingness was replaced with a white nothingness. She was about to laugh with relief when she felt a cold sensation prickle the back of her neck._

"_Wha—?" she gasped. She spun around, and failed to notice the black, clawed hand that stretched from the white oblivion behind her. It grew and grew until it filled everything with its blackness. Toothiana failed to notice it stretch over head, but only noticed it s it closed over her eyes._

"_No!" she yelled, once again willing her thoughts of light into being. She gasped as she felt _something_ grip her head and pull it back._

"_Arrgh!" she yelled. She grasped at thin air as she willed the hand to disappear. It did not. She screamed as the tendrils returned, latching onto any sliver of flesh they could touch; her hands, her neck. She watched in horror as one particularly large one loomed in front of her face. The wisp on her throat was not as hot as before, but she still felt fire course through her. She screamed louder as the large tendril descended._

"_Tooth! Wake up!" a familiar voice echoed._

_The fairy sobbed in relief, but screamed as the tendril touched her forehead, drowning all her thoughts in darkness. She was in it, too; weighed down by despair as heavy as blocks, her wings did not respond to her will as the air was pressed from her lungs._

"_No! Tooth, stop it! It's all in your head! The darkness'll stop if you will it to!" Jack said as panic laced into his words. The fairy grasped the meaning of her friend's words, but didn't have the energy to put it into actions. She weakly willed the tendril to let go of her mind._

_Nothing._

_Then, almost like a whisper, Jack's voice wafted into her fading consciousness:_

"_Find your center."_

_She felt herself drown in the hold; she felt herself slowly give up, her body drifting down into nothing, her wings limp and useless as he feathers lost their hue. A final memory surfaced in her mind; the day she swore to herself she would protect Jamie, the last Light. The sense of purpose that washed over her weak body that day, though fear had almost ruled them, Jack and Jamie managed to rejuvenate them all with Lights._

_._

_._

_._

_._

_._

_._

_._

_._

Memory.

_As she closed her eyes, instead of the drifting in the void, she felt herself submerge in a sea of memories; Jack's conduction into the Guardian circle, Jamie's first time in the North Pole, the races she and the Guardians participated in when she lost most of her believers. All of these memories flashed before her eyes._

I am Memory.


	8. Rise of the Guardians

**Hope you enjoy! R&R please! Imma let this go first cause Im working on something else right now. But I'll post something A.S.A.P. :))**

* * *

**Chapter 7: Rise of the Guardians**

_What the hell just happened?_

I lay flat on my back, the snow a comfort to the heat I felt coursing through my body. It dawned on me that I could be overusing the blessing Manny had given me, and I felt sorry for that.

But I had to buy my friends time. That's my number one priority now.

Now, if I could just _stand_.

A harsh, demonic laughter rang through the howling wind.

Eris had transformed herself (somehow I wasn't surprised, I could feel the climax of the battle nearing. Eris had done exactly what I thought she would); shedding her black cloak and revealing pale skin. Her long, flowing, black hair was done up to look like goat horns. Blood-red rubies adorned her forehead and swathes of black writhed around her body like snakes. I noticed that they're her only source of covering, and that she's naked under those things.

_Ugh, slut._

The sudden thought caused a chuckle to erupt from my throat. Eris's black eyes glared at me as she raised her hands, summoning another wave of chaos constructs, bullets, this time. At least they weren't homing missiles this time.

I rolled to my feet and summoned the Wind to take me to my staff. Eris roared as she fired another round of bullets. I summoned a wall of ice to block it. But just as quick, tendrils of dark energy flew from the spirit's hands and wrapped itself around the barrier, crushing it to rubble.

I cursed and left the ground, summoning blasts of ice as I encircled Eris. She used the dark limbs to deflect them while she fired her own set of blasts of dark energy. I did my best to dodge them, but one managed to explode a few meters behind me, throwing me off-balance. I fell with a thud and a groan, only to hasten to my feet.

"_Despair" _she said, her demonic voice ringing through the haze. I raised an eyebrow before my jaw dropped as she raised her hands, the air above her darkening as red lightning crackled.

I gulped; I fumbled for my staff and summoned the Wind. Just in time, too. Lightning scorched the ground where I was laying a few moments ago. I was panting a little as the exhaustion began to settle in.

"_Suffer, Guardian._" She hissed, as she blasted me with her lightning.

* * *

I am Memory.

_Immediately, the darkness retreated, the tendrils withdrew, the pain dissipated, and the fairy was left lying in a flat expanse of snow with the sounds of a battle raging around her._

_She didn't waste time; she rushed to her fellow Guardians and put her telepathy to good use, stretching forth her probes to awaken her friends from their apparent pain-induced stupor._

Guys! Wake up!_ she yelled telepathically, her voice frantic as she looked over at Jack, who was laying on his back as–who she could assume to be Eris—the demon above him laughed. She yelled louder._

'_Why aren't they responding?' she thought frantically, her wings buzzing as she flew around. She thought of flying to help Jack, but quickly decided against it. She needed to rouse the others first._

'_Wait a minute.' She paused. She probed their minds again, only this time, instead of assaulting it with thoughts, she took the time to feel around sift through the memories that—_weren't there.

'_Well, I'll be—I'm being blocked!' she thought, indignantly. Immediately, she formed a psychic spike and drove through the defenses of each of the sleeping Guardians. Her experience with minds and her enhanced telepathy allowed her clear the blocks._

_And allow the darkness of their thoughts to come rushing into her mind:_

~_O_~

The lone Pooka, the sole survivor of a massacre of darkness; he trudges alone in the winding road. **Despair** coats his being like a second fur as he wanders, without a purpose, without a Light. He seeks nothing out; for all hope is lost as chaos drowns the world in despair and darkness.

~*O*O*~

A faceless, nameless being remains. He does not exist, for the chaos that is **Reality**, has drained him of his very existence: the dreams of the children. The perpetual hope of achieving that which is impossible to face against all odds has been trampled underfoot by the harsh reality of the world.

~*~O~*~

A myth, a legend, he is nothing now. Nothing more than the slight blur of the past as he and everything he stands for slowly dissipates in the morning light. Yet, even that holds nothing but the dull monotony that has followed in the destruction of all things. The lands have all succumbed to nature, wonder and joy leeched out, and its place **Lethargy** hangs like a thick cloak and Death exists in the very air.

|*~O~*|

_The fairy gasped as she severed her connections. They were suffering from the one thing they have been tasked to prevent! Tooth realized that Jack's warning makes sense, now. This truly is a powerful enemy, forcing the Guardians to suffer like this. Tooth bristled with anger as she prepared herself once more to dive into the dark array of thoughts._

* * *

A bright blast of light broke through the haze of darkness that Eris covered the landscape with.

I was tiring; but age comes with experience (or something like that). I've been getting a lot more creative with the ways I employ my powers. Instead of just hail, or ice or snow, I've been able to summon the Wind to fly low but fast (like North), cover my body with ice armor (like Tooth), send out whips of lightning-like ice energy constructs (like Sandy), and make explosive snowflakes (like Bunny). I actually laughed the first time I tried those out in the heat of the battle, but with each experience comes the toll on my energy.

Eris had obscured the landscape with darkness; blurring my sight and confusing my hearing with moans of pain from every side.

The light itself didn't feel like anything, just bright. But the feeling it left behind; it was rejuvenating, it filled me up with energy and something that I've come to describe as _power_.

And then a whisper:

"_Find your center, Jack. Follow your heart._"

And then everything was light.


	9. Zenith

**I'M ON A ROLE! HELP ME KEEP THE FLOW COMING WITH YOUR REVIEWS AND FOLLOWS PLEASE! :D**

* * *

**Chapter 8: Zenith**

"Find your center, Jack. Follow your heart."

_And then everything was light._

* * *

"Jack!"

I turned around Tooth and the others were behind me, but that wasn't what made his jaw drop; it was the fact that they were all wearing _white_: Tooth wore an elegant dress that reached to her knees that made her look like she was wearing feathers; North wore his usual red suit, but it had flecks of white to make it look like he was a glittering Christmas ball; Bunny's fur was pure white, like fresh down; and Sandy's usual golden sand was with the whitest sand I have ever seen, almost like snow. I looked down and noticed that I was wearing my usual hoodie and drawstring pants, but were also bleached white.

After gawking for some time, I shook myself out of my reverie and took a good look around; bare trees covered in snow, dark skies dotted with stars, the familiar house that towered over us—

"Jamie's house…" I breathed, glancing at the other Guardians, who were looking at me with amusement.

"Really, mate?" Bunny drawled, his Australian as thick as ever, and in that moment I broke into a grin. "Cause all I'm seeing is _my_ Warren."

I looked at him in confusion, Tooth giggled as North exclaimed, "Ho! Ho! Bunny, I think _you _are mistaken! All _I_ see is workshop!"

I suddenly felt a pull drag me up. It wasn't the Wind; I wasn't carried inside, more like I was _zoomed _inside. It's kinda hard to explain, more like I was pulled through the walls and deposited into a familiar room. I realized with a jolt it was _Jamie's _room. I half-expected the pain of heartbreak to return, but all I could feel were those times me and Jamie met in the dead of night, exchanging laughs and… that kiss.

"I'm confused." I finally managed to stutter out, North laughed heartily as Bunny chuckled. Tooth giggled once more before she spoke:

"Jack, what does this place mean to you?" she asked; her face suddenly serious.

I faltered at her question. I answered carefully: "Jamie's room… I guess… happy? Calm? I don't really know. Nothing bad, in fact, all I can feel from this place is happiness, peace."

Tooth nodded, like this explanation fitted with something she was thinking about. I looked at her expectantly, waiting for her "woman's intuition" to kick in and "enlighten" us. When none was forthcoming, I pressed:

"Where are we?"

"I think word you're looking for is: _sanctuary_." North said, jolly eyes gleaming. My eyes widened.

"But…" and here I faltered, not really wanting to know the answer, "how did we get here?"

Here, Bunny chuckled. He jutted a thumb behind him, "Wanna watch the action?"

Tooth nodded excitedly and North chuckled beneath his beard, but steered me to the window behind Bunnymund. I looked down, and my jaw dropped. Instead of the asphalt that I expected, I saw, instead, the battle that we—

"Are those things… _us_?" I gaped. Tooth and Sandy nodded excitedly, while North only looked on. Bunny laughed.

"Yeah, mate." Bunny said, pointing over to two forms below them.

"_Wow,_" I breathed, suddenly filled with giddy excitement at the scene that unfolded before my eyes.

* * *

_The spirit of Chaos hissed as the flash of light caused her to waver in her concentration. She willed her darkness to shroud her sight, clouding the flash. When the light dissipated, she allowed hers to lift as well. _

_The Guardians, or their corporeal forms, at least, had been replaced with something else… Eris could only describe them as beings of some sort. The Guardian of Fun that she was battling before was replaced by a large, glowing pillar of ice. It was crudely shaped; with a roughly hewn face white eyes and a mouth. The chaos spirit found herself glaring at the pulsing orb that glowed in the being's chest._

_She looked to the four other Guardians she imprisoned—had imprisoned, for they were now floating along the Ice being. She hissed in dismay. That pesky little fairy freed them all!_

_Another flash of light and the spirit of discord found herself atop her cloud once more. The darkness she summoned to cloud the landscape was gone. She roared in outrage._

_The Guardians assembled themselves in front of the demon goddess (for that is what she is and what she will always be) and spoke in a loud voice:_

"_We stand united, in the light of the Moon; we will fight for the Light."_

* * *

"I did not just say that!" I gasped, flushing slightly at Tooth's giggle. But North quickly hushed us, his eyes glued to the confrontation.

* * *

_The spirit of discord snarled as she summoned the darkness she wreaked around the globe. She knows the Guardians are at their most powerful, their zenith. She will be defeated if she resumes to battle them while in her meager stage. She will be defeated if she continues to battle them while her powers were spread throughout the world, destroying Lights. No, she must be at _her _zenith as well._

_She roared as she dispersed the dark energy she imbued within the Wind. The winter Guardian's magic continued to work, for she felt no drop in the climate, and she absorbed the power she released and the Chaos she wreaked throughout the world. She shuddered at the flow of energy and _power.

* * *

A troop of storm clouds materialized over the discord goddess' form, she cackled as lightning continued to strike her form, filling her up with energy.

A final bolt of red energy.

A flash of red light.

Tooth gasped, Sandy's eyes widened, Bunny and North gulped, I blinked.

"What the—" I began, when an unearthly shriek filled the battlefield.

* * *

_The demon goddess herself is nothing but a figure of black shadows, her "body" a writhing pillar of energy that crackled and pulsed with red. The figure's head seemed to hold a snout and seemed to hold a pair of goat's horns, whose tips fired off bursts of chaos energy._

_She faced the Guardians' zenith forms with her own, as the embodiment of Chaos and Discord. The Guardian of Fun floated at the leftmost; his zenith form merging and separating from the falling snow. His body was a glowing column of ice and snow, while his face was a roughly hewn shard of crystal with glowing white eyes and a roughly hewn mouth, which was curved into a smirk._

_Beside him, the Guardian of Memories—that pesky fairy!—shone. Her body replaced by a glowing column of memories, roughly molded to look like a vague form with angel wings. Each memory of every child lives within her, and in her center, shines her own, as radiant as the full moon on a black night._

_Floating at the rightmost, the Guardian of Hope hovered in his zenith; a being of white radiance whose "chest" pulses with a golden radiance; the hope of Earth that shines as bright as the sun. His very presence imbues the world with hope of victory over the forces of chaos and despair._

_Beside him, the Guardian of Dreams stands tall and proud, his short stature replaced by a tall and regal form whose face bears golden eyes that have seen every thought and every _dream _he has granted his believers. His body is a shifting mass of sand that trails behind him like a majestic cloak._

_In the center, leading the Guardians in their conflict for Fun, Wonder, Memory, Hope, and Dreams, is Nicholas St. North, most commonly known as Santa Claus to his believers. His body is a pillar of kaleidoscope colors, their light creating a prismatic halo that lights up the darkness of chaos._

_They stand as one under the light of the Moon, who guides them as they face Eris, the demon goddess of chaos and discord in the Last battle._


	10. The Final Battle

**Chapter 9: The Final Battle**

With a roar, the demon goddess summoned an arc of red lightning that pulsed through the icy tundra. The Guardians scattered, each using their forms to weave in and out of the lightning's path of destruction: Jack scattered his form to join the falling snow, only coalescing once the lightning cleared; Tooth followed his example by dispersing herself throughout the field, only to appear behind the demon goddess and fire a salvo of tiny pinpricks of light.

* * *

"_What are those things?" I asked; my eyes still glued to the battle waging below._

"_I think those are _memories_, Jack," Tooth replied in wonder. "Memories that I manifested into light projectiles like my feathers; see how they affect Eris mentally, too?"_

"_Uh… no?"_

"_Oh! Sorry," she grinned sheepishly as she started to explain how each of the projectiles was memories compacted together and coalesced to form a "light". She also explained that as each memory made contact with the demon, they released a flood of memories to shatter her concentration to create an opening where the Guardians will attack. She beckoned us to watch:_

* * *

As the salvo of light made contact with the void of Eris' form, the darkness began to sizzle and pop like a snail that was sprinkled with salt by some cruel boy. Then with a howl of pain, a beam of light burst from the point of impact, and the darkness chipped away.

She—it hissed. And the air around the battle trembled with her message:

"_How dare you!"_

She then whirled around and fired a blast of black energy from her ram-like horns. It hit Tooth's form square in the chest.

* * *

"Gaaaargh!_" a loud screech woke me from my trance-like state in observing the battle. I whirled behind me, where Tooth sat in Jamie's bead, clutching her chest. Her form crackled with black lightning, almost like she was electrocuted._

"_Tooth!" I yelled._

* * *

Jack's zenith form materialized below Tooth and caught her by summoning gusts of wind to lower her into its arms. Then it raised its head to hiss at the goddess, who was busy fighting North, Bunny and Sandy.

North stood to her left, his body lighting up the flood of darkness that had settled over the battlefield. He was firing stream after stream of multi-colored lights—aurora—that constantly lit up around Eris' form. Swirls of vapor hissed whenever a ray made contact with her skin.

Bunny's form dashed around and about, firing concentrated beams of yellow light whenever Eris was distracted by the other two Guardians. They imploded whenever they made contact.

Sandy worked the range combat; summoning beams, whips, and constructs that exploded whenever they touched the goddess. His cloak was spread around him like majestic wings, further illuminating the flood of darkness.

Jack's form gently laid Tooth down and erected a dome of pale blue energy around her. Then, he turned around, his carved mouth set into a tight line. He clenched his fist as he summoned the Wind to rage around the goddess. Eris whirled around.

"_Jack, darling," _It hissed. The ground beneath its feet began to tremble as tendrils of darkness seeped through the cracks. They swirled around the demon goddess. She closed her fist, and the swirling tendrils froze. Jack could plainly see from where he was that they had sharpened to fine points.

Eris waved her hands and sent them flying to the ice being. But he merely raised his hand, and suddenly they were encased with ice.

"_What—"_

Jack's form opened its mouth impossibly wide, revealing a cavern of white that seemed to extend to forever. A breath of thick, roiling white mist emerged in torrents and proceeded to engulf the demon goddess's form.

* * *

"_Oh, yuck." I said, gagging when I saw the display._

_Tooth was fine, now; she explained that since that that was still their bodies down there, albeit they were now the manifestation of their respective element. She explained that after Man in the Moon liberated them from their corporeal forms—_

"_By having us focus on our centre." I remembered. Sandy nodded._

—_he took them to this… _plane. _Tooth had no other word for it. But she explained that right now, they were purely nothing but a conscious thought: something less than a spirit, but something more than nothing._

"_Wow." I breathed._

"_You said it, mate." Bunny agreed, turning once more to focus on the battle._

* * *

The mist swirled around Eris. Her dark body expanded, as if a beast unfurled itself from within and spread out its wings. The demon's wings flapped around her form, sending gusts of dark wind. Eris howled.

A surge of a thought passed through the ice being that passed as Jack. It spoke a single command:

_Finish her._

Tooth rose from the cocoon the Jack wrought upon her being. She held out her hand, the glowing appendage wrapping itself around Jack's own outstretched one as they rose from the ground and teleported behind Eris, who whirled around in surprise.

"_Cowards!_" she spat. Her wings continued to blow torrents of dark wind towards the two. But Jack raised his hand, and immediately a bright blue light enclosed the group, protecting them from Eris' darkness.

The Epitomes of Wonder, Dreams, and Hope joined hands with that of Memory and Fun. Their outstretched appendages glowed with a slivery white light as they floated ever higher in the sky, Jack's dome keeping Eris' influence at bay.

Their eyes closed and their bodies stilled, the only sound coming from Eris' enraged howls as she fought in vain to breach Jack's magic barrier.

Then, all at once, their eyes opened, and their intertwined hands pointed themselves to the struggling goddess. Their mouths opened, and a voice so powerful it shook the land said:

_Be gone, Chaos Queen. We banish you, now and forevermore!_

Immediately, a beam of light shot from the heavens and pierced Eris' dark form. She screamed in shock and pain as the tiny pinprick of light slowly ate through her zenith, vaporizing it and leaving nothing in their wake.

She hissed as she summoned more chaos energy from around her, even resorting to archaic means—such as spells and enchantments—to invoke the power of discord. She cackled as her form slowly began to materialize once more.

Now, Jack always was the youngest of the group, therefore, the most prone to stupid, if sometimes great, ideas. Even when his consciousness had departed from his form and Manny was the one controlling them now, Jack retained his sense of… thinking.

A voice as soft as the falling snow, but as loud as a howling blizzard, called out:

_Queen of Discord, Bane of Joy, we sentence you to entombment._

_Your body shan't rot, nor shall your soul. But we cast you to the darkness, where you shall lay, now until the end of time!_

* * *

_I smirked at my spell. Bunny chuckled._

"_Nice words mate."_

* * *

Eris' cackling faltered when she heard the incantation.

"NO!"

A flash of blue light emanated from Jack's form and filled up the scene like a bright sea of aquamarine. The light wrapped itself around Eris, who had stopped moving, and slowly pushed her down. The ice cracked and gave way beneath her feet as the light sank with her, wrapping her up in an endless void of blue. The panorama returned once more to its normal color as the Guardian's zenith forms disappeared in a flash of white light.

* * *

"_What's happening?" I asked. My eyes were wide open as I and my friends' bodies were slowly fading out of sight._

"_We're returning." Said North, his Russian accent alight with joy and relief._

"_Aye," Bunny muttered affirmative, his face a mirror of North's._

"_I'm gonna miss this dress." Tooth sniffled. I held back a chortle as I felt my sight give way to darkness._


	11. The Aftermath

**Chapter 10: The Aftermath**

"I feel weird," I said, at last. The battle was long over, and we were on the sleigh once more, soaring over the East Coast.

"Probably nothing, mate." Bunny commented, his paws tightly gripping the railing of the sleigh. I held back a bark of laughter.

I didn't believe him, though. I felt something coursing through my veins, sapping at the strength that Manny renewed us with. I thought back to the scene of destruction at the South Pole. Human scientists would spend years wondering what on earth happened that caused the ice to melt, for blast marks to mar the tundra, and for canyons and crevices to jag along the ground. I grimaced.

I ignored the feeling. I thought back to Jamie, how he saved me from Eris's darkness, how he made my sanctuary his home… I'm confused. But for now, I'm content knowing that he's alright, no longer in danger of losing his light.

As we were leaving the borders of the city, the wind wafted over, carrying with it the strains of music. This one had words, however, and I strained to hear it:

_Once I rose above the noise and confusion _

_Just to get a glimpse beyond this illusion_

_I was soaring ever higher, but I flew too high _

_Though my eyes could see I still was a blind man_

_Though my mind could think I still was a mad man_

_I hear the voices when I'm dreamin', I can hear them say:_

The song faded to silence, replaced by the howling wind. I craned my neck, trying to see where the song came from, but the clouds of the night sky blocked my view of the city below us. I looked forward again with a huff.

There was something… off about the lyrics to the song. It almost sounded like it was… telling me something. I shrugged it off as we neared the Pole.

I knew I shouldn't have.

* * *

_Carry on, my wayward son_

_There'll be peace when you are done _

_Lay your weary head to rest_

_Don't you cry no more_

* * *

**FINALLY, FINISHED. I'm so sorry that I only got to update now. SCHOOL WAS A BETCH and the only reason I **_**got**_** to finish this was because I got stomach problems and had to stay home. Oh, well… make the best out of everything, right? :P :3**


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